How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist

[54anickel]

Couldn't sleep last night and while channel surfing I caught one of the authors, Mark Robert Waldman on Tavis Smiley. Interesting, it's all about "stilling yourself". Doesn't matter what your spiritual belief is or if you even have one. Focus on God, or the big bang - it doesn't matter - focus on a concept beyond comprehension and the effect on the "compassionate part of the brain" is the same.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=tavi08s23a5q84a


I just might have to check out their book....

http://www.amazon.com/How-Changes-Your-Brain-Neuroscientist/dp/0345503414

[Schema Thing]

1. cool. tonight I shall pray to republicans.

[54anickel]

3. I suppose they could be a concept beyond comprehension. I sure can't understand them!

[Warpy]

2. It's kind of a poor title

since differences in our brains quite likely predispose us to be believers or unbelievers.

I remain convinced it's hard wired, since neither seems capable of converting the other.

[dweller]

4. in the clip

the author mentions the 4 views of god that humans percieve, yet only describes 3 ...

the 4th must be the most feared and powerful
dp

[sam sarrha]

8. the brain has a tendency to fill in the holes and putty up the cracks in perception..it really looks

like god is one of those processes.. the born again phenomena is a measurable increase in seratonin, accept god and get high on brain drugs. religion has always taken advantage of this and used it to manipulate people. they may not have always known they were doing it, ot it existed, tho thieves like Hagie, Benny Hinn ..etc make million$ off it

[Fozzledick]

5. Sounds to me like they're describing meditation, regardless of subject

[sam sarrha]

7. yea.. but he seems to be saying you can get some wood and nails an build a house.. with no plan/expe

its a science.. it would be worth checking on the Buddhists that have been developing it for 2600 years

see post #6

[sam sarrha]

6. Buddhists have been researching this thru Meditation, as a science for 2600 years, they have it down

especially the Tibetans, Logong 7 step mind training.

i had a Tibetan teacher for 5 years, it was fascinating, but it is best to actually get a meditation teacher rather waste tour time on a haphazard sys ten and get a lot of bad habits, or get messed up with a religion.

its all about training the mind, establishing control over brain wave frequencies, it restructures the brain the way it was meant to work.. i taught meditation in prisons, they got paroled really quickly, really dangerous inmates changed into the most helpful, compassionate people i have seen, they changed from predators to protectors.

check out Pema Chodron, 'when things fall apart', 'dont bite the hook''start where you are'
http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1239511001/ref=sr_pg_2?ie=UTF8&rs=&keywords=pema%20chodron%20books&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Apema%20chodron%20books&page=2

and jack kornfield, got a lot of his meditation tapes
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=+jack+kornfield&x=12&y=14

sharon salzeberg
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=+sharon+salzberg&x=13&y=21

Dali Lama
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=+Dali+Lama&x=15&y=22

rob narin, the best meditation book
http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Mind-Psychology-Rob-Nairn/dp/1570627630/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239511507&sr=8-2

any teacher or method that tells you to bland out/empty the mind, resist thoughts.. should be avoided, all you do is watch your breath with about 20% of consciousness, the thoughts arise like waves from the sea, you name them "thinking" like touching a soap bubble with a feather, gently bouncing it without breaking it... the wave breaks on the beach and it is gone.. then it will happen again, with practice the thoughts will lose their emotional engines and you will see them for what they are, attempts to draw you into the past or the future.. meditation trains you to stay in the moment.. to stay awake in the now. it takes a while.. 10 minutes at a time the first 30 days.. longer after that. mornings are goo times to meditate before you get tired. fairly quickly one starts disassociating emotions from thoughts, the middle path becomes visible

nice cd, very helpful
http://www.dharmacrafts.com/105xBS/2050CD/end-chime-for-meditation-cd.html
No more watching the clock! This CD offers selectable silence up to 70 minutes. Then a low pitched Tibetan singing bowl is struck three times to signal the end of a silent meditation period. You can select the desired length of silence by selecting one of the eleven tracks. A bestseller!

Lengths of Silence:

Track 1 — 70 minutes
Track 2 — 60 minutes
Track 3 — 50 minutes
Track 4 — 45 minutes
Track 5 — 40 minutes
Track 6 — 30 minutes
Track 7 — 25 minutes
Track 8 — 20 minutes
Track 9 — 15 minutes
Track 10 — 10 minutes
Track 11 — bowl strike

[Warpy]

9. People without access to teachers can learn at home

and there are plenty of talks and guided meditations online at various Buddhist organizations to get people started.

I find the Friday meditations at the Buddhist Society of Western Australia to be particularly accessible for beginners. The lectures are also quite helpful in avoiding some of the pitfalls.

One thing I can say about meditation is that it will take you places you never knew existed.

[sam sarrha]

10. Home>links>> Tibetans have a word for one particular thing that happens, "Skillful Means"

i saw it happen to prison inmates when i taught meditation in a prison.. it got me thru 3 years working at Boeing,..:banghead: it was key in my stopping drinking, after 27 years of downward spiraling alcoholism

there is a video of a prison program india called "Doing Time Doing Vipassana". which has reformed many prisons, including the worst in India.

there are audio teachings and meditation instruction at http://www.Buddhanet.net home page, and http://www.FPMT.org



http://www.fpmt.org/inc/nav/search_results.asp?cx=006666013672625551539%3Aviz2vwpxfge&q=audio&cof=FORID%3A11#923
this is a really good source of audio information

http://www.fpmt.org/media/buddhism_audio_teachings.asp and this

http://www.thubtenchodron.org/PrisonDharma/depression_and_buddha_nature.html
a good one about depression

[Warpy]

11. I own "The Dhamma Brothers" on DVD

and find it useful whenever I get into one of those "screw everybody, they're all assholes" moods.

http://www.dhammabrothers.com/

[sam sarrha]

12. i found this sequal....>link>> letters from.. i am going to get the DVD, thanks

http://www.deepdiscount.com/viewproduct.htm?productId=47298774